MEET THE MAKER: ENERGY ON DEMAND

As an entrepreneur, Laura Incognito of Little Tucker has plenty of get-up-and-go. For those who need a boost, she offers tasty treats packed with healthy ingredients. by Shelley Boettcher

As an entrepreneur, Laura Incognito of Little Tucker has plenty of get-up-and-go. For those who need a boost, she offers tasty treats packed with healthy ingredients.

laura Incognito is used to getting flak about her unusual last name. “I’ve been stopped at the airport because they think it’s fake. People ask me if I’m travelling in disguise,” she says. “I’ve even had flights cancelled because of it.”

Despite the hassles, she’s proud of her family’s Italian roots, and plans to remain Incognito for a long time. But when it comes to what she does for a living, well, Incognito isn’t hiding her true identity any longer.

She’s the owner and operator of Little Tucker, a food purveyor making raw and healthy foods for Calgarians. Her “energy bites,” vegan lunches, salads, raw desserts and breakfast creations are offered at more than 18 places around town, including Wild and Raw, Monogram Coffee, Blush Lane Organic Market, Amaranth Foods, Philosafy Coffee and Vitality Tap.

She started Little Tucker about 18 months ago, shortly after moving to Calgary. (The name draws on slang from her native Australia where “tucker” means “snack” or “meal.”) Like many of her countrymen, Incognito went travelling after completing school. In her case, she bummed around the U.S. for three months after finishing a master’s degree in journalism. “But after the three months was up, I didn’t want to go home,” she says. “So I applied for a visa to come to Canada.”

She headed first to British Columbia but fell in love with a Calgarian. One thing led to another, and she ended up here, waitressing and homesick. “I was really miserable,” she says, “and I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life.” The beginnings of an answer came when she realized that feeding people was the only thing that had ever made her happy. “The kitchen has always been my happy place,” she says. “I love creating recipes and thinking outside the box.” As a vegetarian with a love of health-driven foods, she could see a gap in the market and decided to fill it.

Little Tucker focuses on snacks and meals that are gluten-free, dairy-free, raw and made without refined sugar. Most are vegetarian, many are vegan-friendly, too. And they’re loaded with good-for-you ingredients, some of which—acai berries, goji, spirulina, chia, flax and buckwheat—are well known. Others, like lucuma, are more obscure. The Peruvian fruit resembles mango but has a custard-like consistency. “It gives a really sweet taste that’s amazing, like caramel,” Incognito says. Plus, it’s low on the glycemic index, “so it won’t spike your blood sugar in crazy ways.”

Incognito’s creations are selling out daily and she is rapidly expanding her business to keep up with the demand. “I can’t believe how lucky I am,” she says. “It blows my mind. I wake up every day and I just love what I am doing.” It’s a refreshing change from some of her earlier days. Incognito recalls a time when her boss at an Australian radio station asked her to consider changing her surname because he didn’t think listeners took her seriously. But that was then. This is now. This time, she’s making sure everyone knows her name.